RPC I 2220

Ruler:  Octavian, ruling as Augustus between 27 BC-AD 14

Denomination: Cistophorus

Obverse:  bare head of Augustus, right; IMP·IX·TR·PO·V (Imp(erator) IX Tr(ibunicia) Po(testate) V = acclaimed emperor for the ninth time, with tribunician power for the fifth time)

Reverse:  Circular temple with four columns containing military standard (signum); MART VLTO in field (Mart(is) Ulto(ris) = of Mars the Avenger)

Reference: RPC I 2220

Mint: uncertain mint in Asia minor (Pergamum?, struck in 19/18 BC

Weight:

Diameter:

Provenance: ex auction Giessener Münzhandlung 22, München 1982, Nr. 410 

Notes: In the second half of the first century BC, Rome had suffered repeated shame at the hands of its powerful eastern rival, the Parthian Empire:

In 53 BC, the wealthy Marcus Licinius Crassus, who dreamed of being a Roman Alexander the Great, was killed and his army shattered at Carrhae, thereby permitting the Parthians to capture the standards of the broken legions.

A little more than a decade later, in 40 BC, at the instigation of the rogue Roman commander T. Labienus, the Parthians mounted a full-scale invasion of the province of Syria. This massive assault overwhelmed the governor and brought new standards into Parthian hands as trophies. 

Seeking revenge for these disasters and desirous of guaranteeing the stability of the buffer kingdom of Armenia, in 36 BC Marc Antony mounted a new campaign against the Parthians, but this too ended in disaster and the loss of further standards.

At last, in 20 BC, the ascendency of Roman power in Armenia placed Augustus in a strong bargaining position with Parthia and he used it to reclaim the lost standards through diplomatic means. This was a major public relations coup for Augustus whose propaganda tended to focus on settling the upheavals of the preceding period of the Roman civil wars and looking forward to a glorious future with himself at the head of the state. The standards were brought back to Rome where a new temple of Mars Ultor (“the Avenger”) was vowed to house them. Initially the Senate had wished to erect this temple on the Capitoline Hill, but Augustus insisted that the temple should be built in his new forum so that all of the glory for the achievement—which tended to be given an inappropriate military sheen—should fall upon the emperor alone. 

Augustus had pledged to build a temple to Mars Ultor (Mars the Avenger) upon avenging the murder of Julius Caesar. The Marcus Publius Crassus standards and the Roman captives held by the Parthians were returned on May 20, 20 BC. Since the Mars Ultor temple was not finished at that time, a small round structure was erected that temporarily housed the standards. This provisional temple was erected on the Capitol about 19/18 BC. The standards were placed in the new Mars Ultor temple on the Augustus Forum in 2 BC – Marion Giebel, Augustus Res gestae Tatenbericht (Monumentum Ancyranum), Stuttgart 2002, pp. 34 and 59-60.

In other words, this reverse type commemorate the historically significant event of the return of the standards, represented by a signum.

This coin is a direct descendent of the regal and then provincial coinage of cistophori produced by the kings of Pergamon and the governors of Roman Asia. The local population was used to silver coins in such weight and was greatly enamored with them - they continued in use until the 3rd century AD. The vast majority of those issued under Augustus were re-minted as tetradrachms of Hadrian as can be seen by the traces of overstriking found on so many of them.

Coleção : 14 Roman Cistophori